April 30 (Reuters) - Specialty pharmaceutical company WarnerChilcott Plc said it would explore strategic options,including preliminary talks with potential buyers, sending itsshares up as much as 24 percent.

The company, which makes women's healthcare and dermatologyproducts and other specialty drugs, said it hired Goldman Sachsas its financial adviser.

The announcement comes after speculation that Bayer AG would make a bid for the Irish drugmaker at $32 pershare. Warner Chilcott declined to comment on the Bayer rumor.

Some analysts suggested that other options, such as sellingcertain assets or declaring a special dividend, were as likelyas a sale of the company. Warner picked up potentiallyattractive products with its 2009 purchase of Procter & Gamble's pharmaceuticals business, including the osteoporosisdrug Actonel and the ulcerative colitis drug Asacol.

Last week, sources told Reuters that the German drugs andplastics maker Bayer was close to making a multibillion-euroacquisition to strengthen its healthcare division.

"I don't know about Bayer as a buyer. This doesn't seem tome that that gets them anything that they'd need," saidJefferies & Co analyst Corey Davis.

"I've always seen Warner as more of acquirer than acquireegiven their declining revenue stream, but bigger companies arecompletely loaded with cash and there's tons of M&A going on,"Davis said, adding that he believes that "this is really morethe start of the process than nearing the end."

In January, Warner Chilcott had forecast a weak 2012 onlower sales and loss of market exclusivity for Actonel inWestern Europe.

And the generic threat to its acne drug Doryx has come topass after a court ruled in favor of Mylan Inc in apatent infringement case. Mylan said on Monday it would beginshipping its generic version immediately.

Warner, which reported Doryx sales of $46 million in thefourth quarter, said it would appeal the ruling. It expects animpairment charge of $90 million to $108 million due to thecourt decision, cutting into its 2012 profits.

ASSET SALE SEEN POSSIBLE

Asked what Warner has to offer a potential buyer aside fromcash flow, Davis said, "a women's health franchise and thedurability of Asacol are probably their two biggest strategicassets right now."

Asacol has annual sales of about $800 million and is stillgrowing, albeit slowly.

Morningstar analyst David Krempa also said he would besurprised if Bayer were interested in Warner Chilcott andsuggested that it may be looking to sell off Actonel rather thanthe entire company.

Actonel had sales of $180 million in the fourth quarter of2011, a 23 percent decline.

"Their product portfolio has a lot of patent issues comingup, which will kind of limit the amount of people that areinterested in buying the whole company," Krempa said.

"If they could get someone interested in the entire company,they would definitely be open to that," Krempa said. "But ifthey can't, then I think they would still be open to sellingonly certain assets."

The company said it would not discuss further developmentsuntil the board has approved a course of action or deems furtherdisclosure to be appropriate or required.

Acquisition activity in the healthcare sector has beenextremely robust in recent weeks. Earlier on Monday, Medicaldevice maker Hologic Inc said it agreed to buydiagnostic test maker Gen-Probe Inc for $3.75 billion.Last week, Watson Pharmaceuticals Inc said it would buyrival generic drugmaker Actavis Group for $5.6 billion andBritish drugmaker AstraZeneca said it would buy ArdeaBiosciences for $1.26 billion.

Meanwhile, Illumina Inc, Human Genome Sciences Inc and Amylin Pharmaceuticals are all in playafter rejecting takeover bids by large drugmakers.

Warner Chilcott was purchased and taken private in 2004 byprivate equity buyers. It returned as a publicly traded companytwo years later but its three largest shareholders, whichaccount for about 30 percent of company ownership, remainprivate equity firms Bain Capital LLC, CCMP Capital Advisors LLCand Thomas H. Lee Partners, according to Thomson Reuters data.

Warner Chilcott shares were up about 24 percent for the yearprior to Monday's announcement. But the company remainsrelatively inexpensive.

"Trading at roughly five times 2012 estimated earnings pershare, Warner Chilcott's valuation remains at the very low endof the historical specialty pharma range," JP Morgan analystChris Schott said in a research note.

Warner Chilcott shares closed up $3.02, or 16.1 percent, at$21.81, off an earlier high of $23.28.